SPACE — NASA and the European Space Agency are joining hands for a planetary defense mission in order to learn how to protect Earth from a possible asteroid collision.<br /><br />The ESA is preparing for the Hera mission that will gather data from Didymoon, the accompanying moonlet of a binary asteroid system called Didymos, years after NASA crashes a spacecraft into it through its Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART.<br /><br />According to NASA, the binary asteroid system is located roughly 11 million kilometers from Earth. NASA's DART spacecraft will be guided by an onboard camera and an autonomous real-time navigation system as it makes its way to the binary asteroid. <br /><br />By 2022, NASA aims to crash onto the surface of Didymoon at a speed of roughly 6 kilometers per second in order to change the speed and direction of the asteroid.<br /><br />Didymoon is 160 meters in width. This is roughly the width of the Great Pyramid of Giza, according to the American space agency. <br /><br />The Hera spacecraft will then research the crater formed by the DART experiment in 2026.<br /><br />According to an ESA news release, the spacecraft will collect surface samples, as well as data about the shape and dimensions of the crater.<br /><br />Hera will also use thermal imaging technology to examine the asteroid's structure. <br /><br />The European Space Agency says the experiment will provide "valuable insights" into the history and origins of our solar system.<br /><br />The agency explained in a news release that the study would provide information on whether or not this technique would work to deflect an asteroid if one ever heads our way.
